Category: Quotes

Oliver Jeffers Calls Them Picture Books

“Since I began making picture books I have come to realise over time that I call them just that. Picture books. Not children’s books. The reason for this is twofold; firstly I don’t believe they are just for children. I have met countless adults that collect picture books for themselves, and they are growing in confidence about openly admitting this in a book-signing queue. It’s not for my daughter, or a friend’s nephew. It’s for me. Often these individuals are teachers, librarians, publishing employees, art college students / aspiring picture-book makers themselves. But increasingly, they are doctors, civil servants, bus drivers … just people who have discovered the joy of a story unfolding visually over a few dozen pages.

I refrain from calling them children’s books because that implies I write them specifically for children. I don’t. I write them for myself. And for everyone.”

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Barbara Cooney On A Robust Literary Diet

“I believe that children in this country need a more robust literary diet than they are getting…. It does not hurt them to read about good and evil, love and hate, life and death. Nor do I think they should read only about things that they understand… a man’s reach should exceed his grasp. So should a child’s. For myself, I will never talk down to—or draw down to—children.”

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Quote On The Wonders & Magic Inside Books

“Sometimes I feel as though these old books are like this [candy Easter] egg. They have the same sort of wonders lying dormant inside of them, magical windows into the past and a world long gone, to imaginary places and adventures waiting patiently for rediscovery. Unused and unnoticed on a shelf in a library or thrift shop or antique store, they wait until one day they are picked up and read and loved and brought back to life. Their magic will stay alive so long as someone is reading them and that, my friends, is a wondrous thing indeed.”

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